Shockwave vs. UK eLED 8?

[Biodiversity_guy]

Was looking for a good "primary" dive light. Both the Princeton Tec Shockwave and the UK eLED 8 seemed like good choices. UK is a tad cheaper, any reason to go with the Shockwave? Better battery drain?

Thanks in advance for the words of wisdon and experience.

 

[ChrisA]

Was looking for a good "primary" dive light. Both the Princeton Tec Shockwave and the UK eLED 8 seemed like good choices. UK is a tad cheaper, any reason to go with the Shockwave? Better battery drain?

Thanks in advance for the words of wisdon and experience.

I assume you meant the "Shockwave LED"

I own a UK eLed and dove with a buddy who was testing an early Shockwave LED before it became available in the store. Both are good. I expected the 3 LEDs to make an uneven light pattern but it didn't the tree beams mrged about a foot from the light.
the Shockwave might have a wider beam (?) the UK light has a narrow "laser-like" beam which many people like. I know UK has geat customer service and warenty service.

I know the UK eLed has a voltage regulator so the light output remains constant untill the batteries are fully discharged and then the light goes out in about 15 minutes. The Shockwave may do this too, I don't know

 

[Rev. Blade]

Was looking for a good "primary" dive light. Both the Princeton Tec Shockwave and the UK eLED 8 seemed like good choices. UK is a tad cheaper, any reason to go with the Shockwave? Better battery drain?

Thanks in advance for the words of wisdon and experience.

I use the Shockwave LED for night dives in clear water. The beam is very bright (if your eyes are accustomed to low light) and has a wide, smooth pattern. No hot spot, so you can really use the whole beam. (...but no hot spot to really focus your dive buddy's attention, either. I don't find that a problem on night dives, because I'm rarely 8' from what I'm trying to illuminate.)

I found all my LED lights (I have 4 diffferent LED lights that I use for diving) to be useless for looking under ledges on daytime dives. For night diving in 60'+ vis water, the Shockwave LED is awesome.

The two power settings are a bit of a bother. My trigger is stiff, so it tends to be all the way on, or all the way off. I'd rarely get it to half power. Both power settings are quite bright. If I walked into a room, and asked you which power setting it was on, I doubt you'd be right much more than half the time. (...and of course you'd have a 50/50 shot at guessing correctly even with your eyes closed.) 20 hours at half power seems optimistic, but I have yet to replace a set of batteries, so maybe....

With regard to service, both (Princeton Tec and UK) have repaired lights for me, with no charge. Princeton Tec seems prepared to take the light back for service without even needing an authorization number. UK seems more interested in establishing "fault", or if you bought your light from an authorized dealer. I've read some other people have had returns refused (under warranty), and each time I've sent them (Underwater Kinetics) a light, they would not tell me in advance if the repairs were going to be covered. PT just says send it in, we'll replace it.

I'd rate UK's customer service very good, and PT to be excellent.

 

[Tacticaltj]

Own two Shockwave LEDs, love em both, never a problem. More than enough light for anything I do in Southern Cal waters and batteries last forever.

M

 

[Biodiversity_guy]

I found all my LED lights (I have 4 diffferent LED lights that I use for diving) to be useless for looking under ledges on daytime dives.


I'd rate UK's customer service very good, and PT to be excellent.

Why are they useless on daytime dives, that is when I figured I would get the most use out of it?

 

[Rev. Blade]

On a daytime dive (especially in clear water, and not deep... but to some degree on any daytime dive) your eyes are accustomed to lots of light (from the sun). The LEDs don't add enough extra light (for me) to be useful.

At night, your eyes have adjusted to low light. The Shockwave LED puts out plenty of light if your eyes were trying to adjust to none.

In fairness to the Shockwave LED, I haven't tried it on a daytime dive. I tried my Princeton Tec XL LED for a couple dives, and it was useless. I decided to bring my brightest (hotspot) light for my other daytime dives. (My Light Cannon was being repaired after flooding on another dive trip.) The XL uses one 1 watt LED, the Shockwave LED uses three 3 watt LEDs, and is of course brighter. My Underwater Kinetics SL 4 has a brighter hotspot than the Shockwave LED. (The shockwave puts out more light, but over a wider area.)

To get a better idea what I'm saying, try this with any flashlight you own (dive light or other):
Turn it on in the daytime ( or in a very well lit room). You'll notice how little effect there is when you shine the light on things. Find an area in shaddow. The light will be more noticeable, but still not bright.

 

[Biodiversity_guy]

So what do you recommend for a daytime auxillary (looking under ledges and into crevacies (sp) light?

 

[alo100]

Halogen light maybe?
For the area which is bright enough, probably you may not need a flash light.
LED or non-LED, I agree that there are many dive lights which are not very very bright.

 

[Rev. Blade]

So what do you recommend for a daytime auxillary (looking under ledges and into crevacies (sp) light?

I found my halogen SL4 by Underwater Kinetics to be quite adequate for daytime diving, due to the tight beam. The dive masters had the Ikelight 6 AA cell lights (PCm or PCa, I forget which one has 6 and which has 4) which was considerablly brighter, but the trade off is battery life. I suppose the UK SL6 is as bright, but it is a bit big to fit in a pocket... it's as long as 3 "C" batteries, plus the reflector.

My 10 watt HID Light Canon is quite bright, when it's not flooded. Their service has been very good, but I'd prefer not to need their service department.

So if you want low upfront cost, compact size, and replace batteries every few dives, I suggest the Ikelight.
If you want a bright light that may last more than 5 hours on one set of batteries, I suggest the SL4 or SL6 depending on how long a light you'd accept. (The SL4 should be about 8", SL6 closer to 10".)
The 10 watt HID Light Canon is a powerful light, but there seem to be good reasons why people pay 4 times as much money to buy a 10 watt HID cannister light. I bought my LC for around $170., so it still seems like a good value. When you light up a 10 watt HID (day or night) it makes a spot you can see.

I think my next light is going to end up being a do-it-yourself cannister light using a 50 watt halogen bulb. If it works out, it will be a light worthy of notice.

 

[alo100]

So if you want low upfront cost, compact size, and replace batteries every few dives, I suggest the Ikelight.

Yes, upfront cost. It's over driven light so that the bulb would not last as long (may I ask, any idea on how many hrs?).
If you compare it with SL4/6 on land, you can tell which one is brighter.
Any thought about C8 Halogen?